Giving at St Catherine’s

A little history…

Time was, the Church in Wales had a central pot out of which all the clergy were paid, and the collections in the plate covered “extras” – bills for the church and anything else the parish wanted to do.
If a bit more was needed, a jumble sale or a fete covered the shortfall.
These days, there is no central pot. If someone says, “the church is well off”, that may be true of some church somewhere, but not the Church in Wales! Nowadays, quite simply, if we want it, we have to pay for it.

Quite a change…

This is quite a change in outlook. And quite a change in finances. When I came as vicar in 2000, our Parish Share (or “Quota” – the money we had to pay the diocese for general upkeep) was £14,000. In that time, the central pot has disappeared, and so this year the Parish Share is £36,000 (of which £30,000 comes straight back to us in one form or another – my salary, vicarage upkeep, council tax, children’s worker fund and so forth). I’ve not yet celebrated the seventh anniversary of my being here and that’s the increase we have faced together!
Which doesn’t begin to cover the increase in gas and electricity, or insurance, or any of the other countless charges we also face.

Give us the hard facts

By paring down our budget to essentials, we are looking at expenditure this year of £68,000 (which includes the Quota). But this really is paring down to essentials. For example, every time we do a baptism or blessing of a baby we give a Bible away; we have no room in the budget for this – these Bibles are paid for by two individuals and never go through the accounts. That’s how closely we have gone through everything.

And how much are we as a congregation giving?

Hard to say. At this point total income looks like £58,000, a shortfall of £10,000, on the budget. Giving accounts for around £40,000 of our income (Gift Aid, rent and grants for the Children’s Worker do the rest), and frankly we need a 25% increase on giving – that is, we need to hit £50,000 this year in order to balance the books.
So, for example, if you were giving £10 per week, we need £12.50 per week.
Except we needed that for every week of the year, and half the year has gone: so now the weekly increase in giving needs to be even greater. Sorry.

Let’s look at this another way!

Giving is part of our worship.
We always say “worship comes first” at St Catherine’s. In the Bible, whether it be in the Old Testament, where they gave offerings of animals and grain and all sorts of things in the Temple, or in the New Testament, where St Paul encourages the Corinthians to “excel in this grace of giving” and reminds them that “whoever sows generously will also reap generously”, our giving is seen as a part of our response in worship to the Lord Jesus, who – again in St Paul’s words to the Corinthians – “though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor, so that we through his poverty might become rich.”
How much should I give?

You decide. Prayerfully. And cheerfully. No guilt trips here. Those who can give a lot, should; those who can only give a little, should do that with a glad heart. It’s part of our worship – we offer it as such, and no-one is judged.

Personally, I tithe. 10% of my income. It’s an Old Testament principle, which Jesus commends in the Gospels, and which receives one of its greatest recommendations in Malachi 3 where God calls the people to tithe and test him to see if generosity in worship brings blessing or not.

Modern examples of people taking that test would include Mr Sainsbury setting up his grocery store, or Mr Cadbury his chocolate factory; it seems fairly clear that their tithes were blessed! And for my part, I would say the same thing. But I would then strongly add that this is a personal decision, and though I would encourage people to tithe in their worship, such a thing must be a free offering of worship and not in any way a gesture of guilt or desperation or compulsion.

Or think of the woman who broke the perfume over Jesus in Matthew 26: even the disciples saw it as waste – the perfume could have been sold and given to the poor. But Jesus saw it as extravagant worship spent on him, and accepted it as such, praising the woman for her generous act. In our giving, others may misunderstand our generosity (“what are they trying to prove?”); but such praise from our Lord is worth that risk. We don’t give to impress anyone else – only in response to the love of God poured into our hearts.

Practical tips

Give regularly!
Envelopes are good. Lots of people do this. If you’d like one – ask.
Standing orders are an alternative – and if you use one, just because you never give in the offering plate doesn’t mean you don’t give as part of your worship: each time that plate comes round, take the moment to thank God for your income, and that you can offer it regularly to him through your standing order. If you’d like one – ask.

Gift Aid
If you pay tax, you really must Gift Aid all your giving! Recent tax changes mean we get less from Gift Aid, but it still makes all the difference to us. It costs you nothing, and benefits us immensely. If you still haven’t signed a form, please do it today.


Thank You

Thank you for reading this. Please take time to pray now. I believe the Lord will bless us more than we know as we face this hard time together, and together face up to the cost of commitment to being a part of His church.
His love is wonderfully free; but running a church does cost money!
We want a church that is vibrant, caring for young and old alike, with
families and singles, men and women, children and grandparents all
together praising God. We want a church that builds for the future with
a passion for Jesus and for sharing that faith, a church built on worship
first. A church that grows and influences our town in our day for God and
for good.
A church like this is our choice, our responsibility, our generous
worship offering to God.

Lord, grant us such a church!